(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a culinary seasoning composition and, in particular, to compositions containing a "salty" substance such as sodium chloride, preferably mixed with potassium chloride, and one or more trace elements.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
In the past various proposals have been made for providing seasoning salt compositions which have the seasoning "saltiness" of common salt itself, but which contain less than 100% sodium chloride. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,366 describes a salt substitute comprising from 40 to 90% by weight of potassium chloride and up to 10% by weight of calcium chloride, together with from 5 to 50% by weight of a sugar e.g. various amounts of sucrose and/or dextrose, and up to 10% by weight of a glutamate. In such a composition "saltiness" is provided by the potassium chloride, while the bitter flavour of that compound is masked by the remaining ingredients. Similarly, British Specification No. 1,160,191 describes a culinary seasoning salt composition comprising from 20 to 80% by weight of potassium chloride and from 80 to 20% by weight of sodium chloride, which has a greater salty taste than sodium chloride alone, but in which the bitter taste of potassium chloride is at least partly masked by the sodium chloride. An example of a commercial composition comprising a mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides is that sold as "Seltin" and containing about 65% by weight of sodium chloride, about 25% by weight of potassium chloride and about 10% by weight of magnesium sulphate, together with a silicon dioxide anti-caking agent.
In addition, other proposals have been put forward to base compositions having a saline flavour on ammonium chloride or a glycinamide salt (see British Specification No. 1,531,349). The rationale behind all such proposals has been to provide a composition having a "saltiness" useful in seasoning applications, but which at the same time has a lowered or zero content of sodium chloride, whereby the daily consumption of that compound can be reduced, with consequent benefits to health.
Furthermore, various proposals have been put forward to provide common salt compositions which include a variety of other ingredients, for example, to enhance the free-flowing characteristics of the composition, to enhance its seasoning properties, to make it suitable for use in medicine, and for a number of other purposes. Thus, known additives besides potassium chloride comprise calcium salts, magnesium salts, ammonium salts, iodine compounds, phosphates, flavourings, flavour enhancers, colours, therapeutic compounds and vitamins. This is illustrated, for example, by British Specification No. 655,114, which describes mineral food supplements inter alia for addition to salt comprising:
from 14.4 to 28.8% of calcium, PA0 from 12.4 to 26.6% of phosphorus, and PA0 from 0.8 to 2.9% of iron, PA0 Calcium PA0 Phosphorus PA0 Magnesium PA0 Potassium PA0 Sodium PA0 Chlorine PA0 Fluorine PA0 Iodine PA0 Iron PA0 Zinc PA0 Copper PA0 Manganese PA0 Selenium PA0 Molybdenum PA0 Chromium. PA0 Calcium about 500 mg PA0 Iron about 12 mg PA0 Iodine about 140 mcg, PA0 Calcium about 800 mg PA0 Phosphorus about 800 mg PA0 Magnesium about 300 mg, for example, about 300 to about 400 mg, typically about 350 mg PA0 Iron about 18 mg PA0 Iodine about 150 mcg PA0 Fluorine about 1.5 mg, for example, about 1.5 to about 4.0 mg PA0 Zinc about 15.0 mg PA0 Copper about 2.0 mg, for example, about 2.0 to about 3.0 mg PA0 Magnanese about 2.5 mg, for example, about 2.5 to about 5.0 mg, typically about 4 mg PA0 Selenium about 500 mcg, for example, about 50 to about 200 mcg, typically about 60 mcg PA0 Chromium about 50 mcg, for example, about 50 to about 200 mcg, typically about 60 mcg PA0 Molybdenum about 150 mcg, for example, about 150 to about 500 mcg PA0 Potassium about 1875 to about 5625 mg PA0 Sodium about 1100 to about 3300 mg PA0 Chlorine about 1700 to about 5100 mg PA0 Potassium about 2.0 g PA0 Sodium about 1.5 g PA0 Chlorine about 1.8 g. PA0 about 65% by weight of sodium chloride, PA0 about 25% by weight of potassium chloride, and PA0 about 10% by weight of magnesium chloride or sulphate.
together with an edible filler such as starch. Another illustrative example is British Specification No. 694,597 which describes vitaminized salt comprising common salt coated with various B vitamins and vitamin C.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,823 describes the production of a dietary salt composition fortified with trace minerals. This specification is directed to producing a trace mineralized salt wherein the trace minerals are uniformly distributed throughout the product through the use of a non-toxic liquid polyhydric alcohol such as propylene glycol, which is used to coat salt crystals and to keep the small added amounts of finely powdered trace elements from segregating and dusting during production and subsequent use. The trace elements disclosed include cobalt, copper, iron, magnanese, zinc and iodine, and the claimed compositions include from 0.01% to 2.0% of said liquid polyhydric alcohol. However, there is no teaching of any requirement to control the percent by weight of salt or trace elements in the salt composition. Furthermore, the disclosed compositions are all based on sodium chloride alone as the saline component.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,346 relates to a dietary salt composition which is described as a combination of salts of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium supplemented by suitable amounts of trace elements. The trace elements discussed are iron, iodine, copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, selenium, chromium, nickel, tin, silicon, fluorine and vanadium. The specification teaches a formulation wherein the major elements (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium) must be present in the same ratio as they are in body fluids. Sodium and potassium are provided in the form of chlorides, while calcium and magnesium may be provided by the use of organic salts of glutamates, lactates, tartrates and gluconates. Thus, the specification discloses "salt" compositions utilizing sodium chloride in an amount of from 85 to 95%, potassium chloride in an amount of from 0.5 to 3%, calcium lactate in an amount of from 0.5 to 4% and magnesium gluconate in an amount of from 0.5 to 3.5%. The total amount of trace elements included in the formulation is generally described as less than 0.5% and the formulation is proportioned to supply at least about 20% of the recommended daily allowance of the trace elements included for each 10 gram portion of the "salt" composition. More specifically, it is said that a suggested supplementation would provide about 1/4 to 1/2 of the estimated daily requirement of trace elements in 10 grams of the composition.
Furthermore, a variety of mineral, trace element and vitamin supplement compositions are known which seek to supply the minimum daily human requirement of such substances in an acceptable and assimilable form. However, where such supplement compositions contain sodium or potassium they contain those compounds in a proportion to the remaining minerals and/or trace elements whereby each of those compounds too are supplied in the minimum daily amount per unit dose of composition.
It is known, therefore, to provide seasoning compositions of various degrees of saltiness in which sodium chloride is employed as a carrier for other ingredients or other ingredients are employed to reduce the ill effects of sodium chloride when consumed in excess. It is also known to provide seasoning compositions supplemented with trace elements and to provide trace element supplements including sodium or potassium.
However, while a wide variety of sodium chloride-containing or other "salty" compositions have been proposed, while trace element supplement and like compositions are known, and while seasoning compositions including one or more trace elements are known, it has never before been proposed to employ a seasoning composition to supply one or more trace elements in a recommended daily dietary allowance.